that follows the legalization of marijuana in colorado and washington and a fiscal cliff battle up to the majority of americans calling for higher taxes on the rich. joining me now for strategy talk, karen finney, msnbc political analyst and former dnc communications director and chip saltsman, republican strategist and former manager of mike huckabee's presidential campaign. welcome. you look resplend end in purple, karen. are we experiencing a liberalization of america? if so what is the catalyst? >> if you take a look at both the issue landscape and the exit polling from the most recent election, i think it gives you kind of a road map as to what's going on here. i mean, we are a more diverse country. we have more diverse backgrounds and interests. we did see sort of the issue landscape with regard to the exit polling showing that people's opinions are changing on a lot of these issues. look at the millennial generation. they are far more tolerant generation, far more diverse generation. i think what this reflects is those same kind of demographic shifts that we saw manifest itself